BLUE CULTURE HUB INITIATIVE_ Press release_7.10.2020
BLUE CULTURE HUB INITIATIVE
Press release / 7-10-2020
The Decentralised Administration of Peloponnese, Western Greece and Ionian, is pleased to announce the launch of the Blue Culture Hub network and invite civil society organisations, research and educational institutes, governmental organisations or other relevant entities to participate to the Blue Culture Hub initiative. The initiative was organized in the framework of the project “Climate-Smart Coastal Practices for Blue Governance”-BLUECOAST, funded by the Interreg IPA CBC Cross-Border Cooperation Programme “Greece – Albania 2014 – 2020”. The project is coordinated by the Management Agency of Zakynthos National Marine Park and it is implemented in collaboration with the Decentralized Administration of Peloponnese, Western Greece and the Ionian, the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, the Ionian University, the National Coastline Agency of Albania and the Municipality of Himara. Details for the project are available at http://bluecoast-cbc.eu/.
The Blue Cultural Hub was created in order to support a coordinated partnership as well as to fill any critical resource gaps in order to ensure the protection of sea turtle C. Caretta in Greece and Albania. Taking into account the above, the Blue Cultural Hub’s main role is to support at national and cross border level the relative actors that will deliver the core functions of hub, which are to:
- a) The wide scale upholding, promotion, strengthening and development of the ideals of conservation and environmental protection of sea turtle caretta.
- b) The policy making, strategy formation and the continuous monitoring and evaluation of the voluntary deed.
- c) The administration of resources invested to and / or derived from its activity.
The role is carried out at two levels:
– Cross border: to reinforce involved actors preparedness and advocate for the development of technical capacity to respond to the needs of sea turtle C. caretta.
– Regionally and nationally: to strengthen the response of local actors by promoting and advocating for accountability and partnership.
The Hub involves a new type of networking in Zakynthos and Himara municipalities which is organized in order to jointly cultivate environmental thinking of local societies through the values of culture which are critical incentive to promote collective action and self-organization of active citizens.
The Blue Culture Hub Portal was created in order to provide the wider society with the information on current environmental challenges which gradually become more and more part of our daily life as well as with the vision for a transition to a climate-smart society and the achievement of a resilient future for blue growth.
The organisations can participate to the BLUE CULTURE HUB network by contacting the Management Agency of the National Marine Park of Zakynthos. For more information, the BLUE CULTURE HUB PORTAL is available online on http://blueculturehub.nmp-zak.org.